Weekly Digest 126 - (#398 - #400) (Patreon)

A Fourth Alloy

They were able to quickly ascertain that the new alloy had the same properties of copper. It bent like unalloyed copper did, it was easily shaped by simply hammering it, and it wasn't any harder or more elastic than copper was normally.

It was when they heated the alloy sample again—both to undo the work-hardening from the hammering and to confirm what Lori had perceived earlier—that it showed an unusual property. While copper was known for getting hot easily and conducting that heat well, it usually took a few moments for it to get hot and to spread across the metal.

The metal sample became hot instantly as soon as the corner of the sample touched the binding of firewisps that Lori had formed to heat it. Firewisps quickly spread across the entire sample, and the sample began to glow orange almost immediately. Lori hastily deactivated the binding, and as soon as she did the sample immediately stopped glowing, the firewisps disappearing soon after. By the time that Lori reached out to touch it, the sample was cool enough to touch again, and seemed to be the same temperature as the tongs holding it.

Rian picked it up, and Lori watched as firewisps spread across the sample once more as it became the same temperature as his fingers. "This is so strange," he said. "It was literally glowing hot just a little bit ago, but now…" He held the metal out to one of the smiths—on his apron was burned 'Artelego'—who took it and examined it before leaning down to touch it to the still-hot mold it had been poured onto. The man pulled it back instantly as it probably became very hot, but as soon as it lost contact with the mold the sample became cool again. "Don't get me wrong, it's very interesting… but also very strange. "

"It's become a very good conductor of heat," Lori agreed, gesturing for him to write that down, making Rian reach for his slate again. "The heat exchange across the entire sample is nearly instantaneous, and it sheds heat just as quickly."

"Would this be a good metal for a cooking pot?" Rian said thoughtfully. "It would spread the heat evenly across the whole pot, and being directly on a heat source makes the 'loses heat quickly' part not so problematic…?"

"That might be the only thing it's good for," Lori said.

"I don't know. I think it might be a good material for drawing out heat from wood-fired steam drivers. Having a material like this would be very useful for condensing the steam back into water to be reused."

"How do you know how a steam driver works?"

"One of the saws in the lumber mill I worked at was a hybrid steam driver that could be fueled by wood or a bead. We burned all the bark and rotted wood and things that was no good wood-pressing. I just asked about it and old Virr was more than happy to explain how it worked," Rian said cheerfully. "Never burn sawdust in one of those things. It'll explode."

"It's sawdust. Of course it'll explode."

"Look, I was younger and stupider, all right? The important thing is nothing burned down but my eyebrows."

Lori stared at him. "Rian, if we ever have a steam driver in the demesne, you are forbidden from getting within four paces of it."

"I'm not going to put sawdust in a steam driver!"

The third alloy sample was set aside for the moment. Besides its admittedly interesting thermal properties, it was physically close enough to unalloyed copper as to make no difference. While there was probably a use for it—Rian had been muttering about a copper place and double-layered pots—that could be considered later.

There were five more alloys to make, after all.

Firewisps had been the easiest to do, as heat was spread all through the heated ingot, which was why they had done it first, but fortunately the smiths had been able to suggest a solution once Lori had told Rian how she was having trouble thinking of how to disperse some kinds of wisps through the copper, and he had told the smiths.

The solution had been embarrassingly simply.

Copper shavings.

The smiths had prepared the raw material for her, using knives and files to make copper shavings from a large ingot. It was part of what had taken things so long, along with the work they had to do for the sawmill, as well as repairs of the metal tools around the demesne. Lori was just glad gold lining didn’t need to be reapplied to the insides of their copper pots. They didn’t have any more gold for that.

After the crucible received a quick scrape for any slag that might be stuck inside it, a set of copper shavings were poured in, followed by some fine white Iridescence.

“So,” Rian asked as the crucible was placed on the ceramic block that would keep it off the floor, the binding of firewisps that would heat the insides of the crucible already anchored inside it well away from the white Iridescence, “which binding are you going to try next?”

“Airwisps,” Lori said. “While I admit to also being very curious as to what would result should we perform this alloying with lightwisps and darkwisps, airwisps is where this methodology is most likely to fail, so I would rather we get it out of the way.”

The shavings insured that there were a lot of empty spaces—relatively speaking—between them, allowing for there to be space for the binding to be technically inside the copper. Lori wasn’t sure if that was important, but if they had been melting a solid ingot, the airwisps that would be anchored to the white Iridescence would be from the air above it. While that might work—this was an experiment after all—the previous instances with the earthwisps and now the firewisps had involved wisps that were in the copper, so that was the methodology she was trying to replicate, as it had proven successful already. And short of using some kind of metal tube to blow bubbles into molten copper—which she wouldn’t have been able to anchor to white Iridescence because the latter would have dissolved into the liquid—this was the best way of having air be ‘in’ the copper while still allowing her to anchor its wisps.

“What, not worried at all about how you’re going to do this with waterwisps?” Rian said.

“Water is only dangerous because it will turn to steam. If it’s already steam, it shouldn’t be an issue,” Lori said.

“Can we not be in the room when you try, just in case?”

“… fine.”

“You heard her men, we can run away and hide when she tries with water!”

There were relieved sighs all around from all the smiths. Lori swept an annoyed look over al of them, but… well, she could hardly fault their worry given how dangerous adding water to very hot metalworking was. Instead, she said, “Let’s get this done.”

Lori claimed the airwisps running through all the gaps between the copper shavings, forming them into a binding. Briefly, she realized she could have done the reverse, claiming and binding all the air in the crucible and then adding the shavings. Well, a thought for next time, although she dictated it to Rian for future reference. Rian was on his second writing slate, the first one carefully set aside to keep the writing from getting smudged.

Once the airwisps were bound, she anchored them to the white Iridescence—some of which had also settled among the gaps between the copper shavings—before activating the binding of firewisps to start heating the copper. As the copper started to melt and liquify, the airwisps started moving, though that was as much from the now-liquid copper beginning to occupy the voids they’d been in as the white Iridescence they were anchored to beginning to move.

This one was more fascinating to watch. Even as the earthwisps of the melting copper disappeared as the metal turned liquid, she could keep track of the substance through its firewisps to some degree. And so she was able to perceive that even as the copper melted completely, the airwisps she had bound to the white Iridescence didn’t rise up into the crucible, but stayed intermixed with the firewisps of the molten metal. Unlike the airwisps above it, they weren’t roiling or shifting violently or simply just rising up. Instead, they were moving with the firewisps, presumably being carried along by the molten metal’s currents. It was not unlike the way airwisps were sometimes present in water, somehow dissolved into it, except this wasn’t water…

After she finished dictating this for Rian to write down, the copper was poured into the mold.

Unlike the previous alloy, this one remained hot for some time, the airwisps dissolved into the metal disappearing from her awareness as the earthwisps that indicated the metal had solidified appeared. All that was left was to let it cool…

…so they dropped it into a bucket of water.

As the water bubbled from the steam, one of the redsmiths—Duvar—said, “It’s too big.”

“Come again?” Rian asked.

“The copper we just poured, L—Rian. It’s too big. Me, Sherdon, and Virr all measured the shavings earlier this morning. I know how much copper was supposed to go into the crucible, and what came out was too much. I’d have to drop it into a cup to be sure, but the copper in that bucket looks like it’s a little bit bigger than it should be. Maybe… a twentieth bigger?”

“Are you certain?” Lori said sharply

The redsmith turned towards her directly. “Yes, your Bindership. Normally I’d have thought it would be because of that white stuff, but we all know by now that it just disappears into the molten copper.”

Lori nodded. “Rian, write that down. Someone get a saw ready. I need to see the inside of that metal.”

“You think there are bubbles inside the copper?” Rian said as he wrote, flapping his hand back and forth as soon as he was done.

She shook her head. “I don’t feel any voids of airwisps, so there shouldn’t, but I want to confirm just to be sure. Especially since…Duvar… says that the copper is bigger than it should be.”

Once the bucket stopped bubbling and Lori cooled the copper down the rest of the way—it probably wasn’t necessary to cool the copper like that, but it cleaned most of the soot off the copper in the process as well—the piece of copper was secured, a scrap of leather was placed under it to catch any copper dust, and a hardened metal saw—bought from Covehold—was used to cut through the sample. When the sample had been cut through, there were no visible bubbles or anything to explain the supposed increase in volume, which the other redsmiths also confirmed.

The larger of the two pieces were given to the smiths, who proceeded to hammer at the copper to test it for altered physical properties. To Lori’s eyes, it seemed to flatten out easily enough, but once they were finished, the smiths and redsmiths reported that working the metal was easier somehow, as if it were softer than it had been previously. And when they heated the metal again to treat the work hardening the hammering had likely caused…

“Is it just me or does it seem to be taking longer to get hot?” Rian commented.

“It’s not just you,” Lori said, staring at the copper sample, which had been folded over to make it more compact. One end, the end that was touching the binding of firewisps that was supposed to be heating it, was glowing hot. The rest of the length of the metal, while also hot, didn’t seem as hot as it as it should be.

Rian tilted his head. “An insulator? I mean, the other one was a heat conductor…”

Lori deactivated the binding of firewisps. “We’ll see. Set that aside to cool, and someone keep an eye on it. Tell me if it seems to take longer to cool than copper should. Let’s get the crucible filled up for the next alloy.”

Hopefully, they could make one more alloy before lunch and do the other three afterwards.

And then…

Well, she’d see about whether it was possible to alloy using bindings of more than one kind of wisp at a time.

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Alloys Of Light And Dark

The next alloy was prepared the same way as the previous one. Measured copper shavings and white Iridescence were poured into the crucible, and then Lori activated the binding of firewisps that would slowly heat the metal. When the metal started to glow with heat, she claimed and bound the lightwisps in the gaps between the shavings, forming them into a binding and anchoring to the white Iridescence in the crucible. As with the airwisps, the lightwisps seemed to occupy the same space as the firewisps of the molten metal. Also like the airwisps, once the slag was scooped out the copper was poured into the mold and allowed to slowly cool in the air, the lightwisps disappeared with the earthwisps.

Unlike the previous alloys however, the altered physical properties of the alloy were immediately evident under the soot covering the metal. Because of the altered properties, the alloy was gripped in tongs and dipped into the bucket of water instead of simply dropping it in. Once the sample had stopped causing the water to bubble, it was carefully pulled out and laid down on a nearby anvil, where Lori altered one of the bindings of lightwisps anchored to the ceiling to shine brighter and shine down on the sample.

"Suddenly, I want new windows," Rian said as everyone stared at the perfectly transparent sample of copper. Well, not perfectly transparent. Like glass, its curves and angles and little textures from the cooling distorted the light passing through it, and some small amount of soot still clung to its surface, making discerning the sample's shape easier. "Your Bindership, when you're done with copper, maybe we can try seeing if this works with molten rock? Because if you had transparent rock to work with…"

"After we've seen to the copper," Lori said, also staring at the now-transparent metal. She gestured towards it. "Begin the tests."

That seemed to stir the staring smiths into action again, and the copper was hastily picked and gripped in tongs. The same test they're run on the previous alloys were conducted: a hammer was used to start shaping and flattening the sample to test if it still had the same physical properties. At first the smiths move reticently as if they were actually were working on glass, but after the first few hammer strikes without the sample cracking or shattering into pieces they picked up the pace.

After some time working on the sample while other smiths temporarily put away the mold and crucible—people were going past the entrance of the smithy towards her Dungeon, likely because it was time for lunch—the redsmiths reported that except for its altered transparency, the sample had the normal physical properties of copper.

The sample of airwisp-anchored copper alloy had cooled, and they’d dropped it into the bucket just to be sure before setting it aside with the other sample’s they’d made this morning. Lori still needed to try to identify other altered properties of the metals later.

The lightwisp-anchored copper alloy was the most immediately interesting of the alloys they’re produced. They didn’t have enough copper stockpiled to put alloy windows on very building—and she had no desire to actually put such on every building—but a transparent metal would be able to act as a viewing port on the door of her Dungeon and on River’s Fork’s dragon shelter, allowing them to check outside during and after a dragon’s passing.

Rian's suggesting to see if they could alloy stone also had merit—ugh, she hated it when he had a point—if only because it was a material they had available. The attempt had to be made, since it worked... well, having transparent stone would be very useful…

Lunch was relatively quiet at their table. With Rian busy most of the morning, he had nothing to report, and he himself seemed preoccupied. He stared down at his food, eating without thought—which was actually faster than how he usually ate, and Lori could recognize the joke that implied—not really paying any attention to Umu and Riz next to him.

"Rian? Is something wrong?" Riz asked.

He blinked, turning towards her. "Huh? No, nothing's wrong. Why do you ask?"

"You were just… sitting there staring," Riz said.

"I was? Oh. Sorry, it's just… I was thinking about something." He shook his head.

"What were you thinking about?" Mikon asked, leaning forward to look past Riz.

Rian glanced towards Lori. "Windows."

"I'm not putting new windows on every house," Lori said blandly. "We just did that."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Good."

Lori went back to her food. Rian did as well, already looking preoccupied again.

As Riz opened her mouth, Rian suddenly said, "So… should I add 'a lot of metal' to the list of things to buy in River's Fork?"

"Don't get lead."

"Well, obviously. Sorry, you were going to say something, Riz?"

After lunch, the two of them returned to the smithy. Rian had more slates in hand, in case he needed more space to write on. While the redsmiths took care of the samples they'd already made—someone seemed to be hammering lettering into them—the crucible was prepared again, slag scraped out from the inside before it was filled with copper shavings and finely ground white Iridescence. This time, however, the crucible was covered instead of left open, preventing light from entering. Once covered, Lori claimed the darkwisps that appeared inside the crucible, forming them into a binding that she then anchored to the white Iridescence. Then she activated the binding of firewisps, which needed some imbuing but that was easily remedied.

Despite some mild concern that the darkwisps would start disappearing when the copper started glowing from the heat, being anchored to the white Iridescence allowed the wisps to persist despite not being imbued. The copper liquefied without issue, the darkwisps 'dissolving' into the metal and being carried along as the airwisps had been.

The cover was removed, and slag was scooped out before the copper alloy was poured into the mold. Once it had cooled sufficiently—and they were sure it wasn't also transparent, just in case—the sample was picked up and dropped into the bucket of water, the contents of which had been replaced.

Once it was cooled, the alloy was retrieved from the bucket and laid out onto the anvil for everyone to see.

"I'll be honest, I was sort of expecting it to be completely black for some reason," Rian said. "Silly, I know. Only the one before this one actually looked different."

"Well, you were half-right, at least," Lori said. Despite being washed and wiped as well as the cloths they had could manage, the copper still looked blackened.

"I wonder… if you put lightwisps and darkwisps in the same alloy, will it come out transparent andtinted?"

"We can attempt to try multiple-wisp alloys later. For now, we need to test this sample."

The sample was taken and tested. Hammering, bending, shaping… despite the color, none of its other physical property seemed to have changed. Was a slight darkening all there was?

Rian didn't seem to think so. That, or he was simply in denial as he pick up the thinner, wider ingot. They didn't have time to flatten it out completely into a sheet, after all. "Hmm…"

"Set it aside to test further later, Rian," she said. "We need to move on to the next test." Already, more copper shavings were being poured into the crucible. The smiths had been a little overenthusiastic in their shaving, but Rian had argued this made it easier to melt them, since heat didn't have to penetrate so deep. S since they were heating the copper with radiant heat instead of direct heat so as not to potentially affect the allowing metal, she'd decided to just go along with it.

Rian held the sample out to her. "Can you pass magic through this?"

She blinked. What? "What?"

"Can you pass magic through this?" he repeated. "Do that thing you do where you claim and imbue wisps through metal?"

She took the metal with a sigh, holding it in her hand as she reached down to use it to imbue the binding of firewisps again. "Why?" she said, moving one end of the darkwisp-anchored alloy into the binding.

"Because you told me that darkwisps can block magic."

Lori blinked, then stared at the flattened ingot. That…!

She reached through the metal towards the binding of firewisps, being careful to ensure that it was through her hand that was holding the metal that she bound the wisps through and not her connection to her core. Lori felt the familiar distant-yet-near sensation of using a metal contact, and began to imbue the bin—what the colors?-!

"What the colors?" she exclaimed.

Rian straightened. "So it does affect magic?" he said eagerly.

Lori ignored him as she continued to try to imbue the binding of firewisps, even as she struggled—and it was a struggle—to imbue the binding. She had never had to struggle with imbuing, hadn’t even known it was possible. In all of her time as a wizard, and now a Dungeon Binder, nothing had ever actually impeded her ability to imbue something. Lay claim to something, yes. She had practiced trying to claim wisps that another Whisperer was also trying to claim, but that had never made imbuing difficult. This, though…

It was like trying to blow through folded cloths pressed against your mouth to move a sheet of paper, or like trying to walk through waist-high water flowing towards you. Try as she might, she could feel only a small amount of the magic she was trying to pass through the wire making its way to the binding at a rate that was a trickle compared to what it usually was.

With a shiver, Lori stopped using the alloy as a conduit and hastily put the sample down as she began to imbue the binding of firewisps though her connection to her core.

“Your Bindership? Is something wrong?”

Lori shook her head roughly. “Rian, write this down,” she said. “The flow of magic is impeded through the darkwisp-anchored copper alloy.”

Rian made a show of writing that down. “We should ask Taeclas if it’s the same for her,” he said thoughtfully. “Maybe check the other alloys if their ability to channel magic has been affected too? In hindsight, this should have been a physical property we were testing for.”

“If that’s the case, we should perhaps test how well lightning passes through the alloys as well,” Lori said. “Especially when we make the lightningwisp alloy.”

“Oh, you know bindings to test that? That’s a relief, here I was wondering how we were going to do that…”

“…” Lori ‘…’-ed. Maybe there’s something in the almanac that could help her. “Is the crucible ready yet?”

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Sliders And Dials

Once the crucible was ready, Lori went out to get some lightningwisps. The quartz in her staff had long since run out—she should probably do something about that before the next time she had to leave her demesne—so she walked to the binding that kept bugs out of her Dungeon. It was made of lightningwisps, and left little sparks in the air as a result. Lori collected those lightningwisps and formed them into a binding. Once she felt she had enough wisps, she carried the binding back to the smithy and anchored it into the white Iridescence in the crucible.

Lightningwisps was one of two wisps that could be inside solids, and so she took care to intersect parts of the binding with the copper shavings. It probably didn't matter—the copper shavings would shift as they melted—and in any case, under normal circumstances metal would cease being able to channel lightningwisps once it became hot enough, well before it liquefied. She remembered that much, at least.

She still hadn't learned how her old professor had managed to make a ball of iron float using lightningwisps.

Melting the shavings and cooling the copper alloy went without issue, so the sample went into the bucket to cool. As soon as it was cool enough to touch, Lori picked it up and immediately started using it to claim and bind airwisps. That also went without issue, and imbuing through the metal was just like imbuing through any other piece of copper.

As the sample was hammered to test its physical properties, Lori went to test the previously made alloys, using them to claim, bind, and imbue airwisps. Of them, only the darkwisp-anchored copper alloy resisted her attempts to imbue through it. however, in the process of testing, she discovered that the distance between where she touched the alloy and where the wisps she wanted to imbue contacted the matter affected the degree of resistance.

While it wasn't obvious when she was imbuing airwisps, touching the alloy to the stone walls of the smithy and trying to imbue the earthwisps there made the matter more obvious. The closer to the earthwisps she positioned her nail on the alloy, the less resistance there was in the metal, making imbuement… well, not easier, since it was still more difficult than normal. Less difficult, then. Lori shook her head as she dictated the results of the test to Rian. While it was an altered physical property, she couldn't see how it could be useful. She probably wouldn't be making this again.

"Oh, that's probably how the dials and slides on bound tools work," Rian commented as he wrote on. "I've been wondering about that. Having an alloy that restricted the amount of imbuement coming from the bead would probably do it."

Lori's head turned slowly to stare at him.

"What?"

Making the last alloy was delayed as Lori tried to test Rian's suggestion. A bead was retrieved, and the other previous alloys, their capacity to channel magic unaltered, were used as improvised bead receptacles and wires. The transparent alloy was hammered to make a cup-like shape and touched to one end of the darkwisp-anchored copper alloy, and the smith used narrow-pointed grippers to crimp the two together for convenient. The airwisp-anchored alloy had one end wrapped around a rock which Lori had softened to embed some a piece of white Iridescence on, to which she anchored some lightwisps such that the binding intersected with the airwisp alloy.

Then she took the airwisp alloy with its binding of lightwisps and touched it to the point of the darkwisp alloy furthest from where it was crimped to the improvised bead receptacle, staring at the rock on the end of it. Rian helpfully moved to where he'd cast his shadow on the rock mounted on the alloy, but it was insufficient. Lori deactivated the lightwisps on the ceiling to make it easier to see if any light was coming from the binding. She didn't actually need to do that since she could perceive if the binding was imbued, but given what Rian had suggested, having the binding actually start glowing would be a perfect proof of concept test.

Lori slowly dragged the airwisp alloy along the darkwisp alloy and closer towards the bead. At a tenth of the length of the darkwisp alloy, a weak radiance finally emanated from the lightwisp binding. It was a glow that grew brighter the closer she moved the contact towards the bead. She moved the contact back and forth, watching the light brighten and dim.

"This is going to make the steam jet drivers so much simpler," Rian said. "Instead of only having three different setting, we could just turn a dial. Much simpler."

Lori grunted. Ugh, she hated it when he was right. Lori removed the bead and handed the copper samples to the smiths. "Separate those, I need to study them individually latter. Is the crucible ready?"

It was, for which she was glad. One last alloy to make—

As soon as Lori poured the white Iridescence into the crucible, Rian cheerfully said, "Well, it looks like you have everything well in hand, so me and the men are going to leave the room now."

Lori blinked. What? "What?"

"This is the waterwisp alloy you're making. You promised we could leave the room when you did that. You know, in case there's a steam explosion that sends molten copper flying everywhere?"

At the reminder, the two smiths closest to the door promptly turned around and made their way out.

Well… she had said they could do that…

Fortunately, there wasn't anything they needed them to do for her. There was the bucket of water nearby—it was dark with soot from the previous two alloys—so she was able to get some water, which she turned into vapor so that it wouldn't explode into steam. To make sure, she began heating the copper shavings in the crucible. Once it was hot enough, she carefully anchored the binding of waterwisps to the white Iridescence, making sure the binding was dispersed evenly. Then she activated the binding of firewisps that would heat the contents of the crucible again and left the smithy.

"I thought you said it was safe?" Rian said as she stepped out of the room.

"I did. However, I find I'm thirsty, so I'm going to go get some water."

"Oh, then you can just wait in the smithy your Bindership, I'll go and get—"

Lori kicked him in the shin and turned to get her water.

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After drinking some water to replenish herself, Lori went back to the smithy to check on the now-molten copper in the crucible.

On a completely unrelated note, there were no explosions of any sort, which had nothing to do with anything, and Lori didn't even know why she bothered to think of it. Still, mentioning it was sufficient get the nervous smiths back into the smithy, where the mold was heated to rid it of moisture before the final alloy was poured into it.

It was almost anti-climactic. The color was unchanged from unalloyed copper, and when Lori used the alloy sample to bind and imbue the earthwisp of the floor, there was no feeling of resistance. When the sample was given to the redsmiths to test, they reported that it seemed similar to the airwisp-anchored alloy, in that it was slightly easier to work. When they heated, however, it wasn't slow to grow warm, unlike the airwisp alloy.

"Maybe it will show other properties once we conduct other tests," Rian said confidently, giving a sigh as he finally stopped writing on the slate he was holding. The two of them had stepped just outside of the smithy to be out of the way as the smiths cleaned up. Lori held the alloys they had made that day, waiting for the redsmiths to finish with the last sample. To her amusement, the redsmiths had taken the time to stamp on the words 'fire', 'air' and so on, identifying the similar looking samples. They had even done the same for the lightwisp- and darkwisp-anchored allows, despite them being far more identifiable. "Uh, what other tests are there besides testing how well lightning passes through them?"

"I have no idea," Lori said. "I'm hardly an expert in metallurgy."

"Should I look for one next time I go to Covehold Demesne?"

"Don't. We can't waste time on that. The properties we are certain of are already more than useful."

"Too bad we don't have enough metal for windows," Rian sighed. "At least, metal that's not more useful doing something else."

"No using the iron you bought in Covehol Demesne for windows," Lori agreed. "You'll simply have to wait until the mine has managed to excavate more. Perhaps you can try to buy more cheap metals on the next trading trip. Tin or gold, maybe."

"Yes, I should probably ask about gold, we need it for buried lattices for the farming plots," Rian agreed. "And if we ever have to coat the insides of the pots again." He titled his head, looking thoughtful. "Actually… we have plenty of wire now. Why don't we just rip the gold wires out of the walls and replace it with the copper wire we bought?"

Lori blinked, also tilting her head. That… actually, that was certainly an option. "It will have to wait until there's more time and need," she sighed.

"I'll set aside wire and remind you when it seems like there's time for it."

Rian excused himself to get started transcribing what was on the slates into the notebook, leaving Lori to wait for the redsmiths to finish with the last sample.

"Thank you," Lori said when one of the smiths—his apron read Virr—came out to had her the last sample, which was stamped 'water'. "I appreciate the work you all did today. Rian will see to it you receive a double serving of fruits with dinner and breakfast tomorrow."

"Thank you, Great Binder," he said. the man looked around, clearly looking for Rian.

"Was there anything else?" Lori said.

"Ah, it's just… well, we realized that we should probably, ah, test how well the… the alloys draw out into wire, Great Binder," the man said.

Lori blinked, tilting her head, then nodded. "I see. Yes, you're correct. While we probably won't really need to use any of them as wire—" wait, the darkwisp-anchored alloy would probably be more efficient used as a wire as long as its resistive property wasn't affected by the process… "—I suppose it's something that should be tried." She looked down at the samples in her hands. "Tomorrow."

The smith nodded, furthering the gesture into a bow. "As you say, Great Binder. Tomorrow."

"Do we still have any copper shavings?"

The man paused. "We can make some more, Great Binder, as long as you don't mind that they aren't as fine as the ones we used today."

Lori nodded. "Do so. I have an additional test to try. Enough for one will be sufficient."

"We'll start scraping some out, Great Binder."

Lori gave the man one last nod, then turned and headed for her room.

Really, one sample was all she needed for testing if she could alloy two wisps at once. It would either work or it won't, although some combinations were probably too contradictory, like alloying both firewisps and airwisps at once. Even if it works, how would they be able to tell?

In her room, she laid out the samples on her table. Each was as wide as her palm now, and thin, although still thicker than a wire. The smith should still be able to draw these into wire.

Looking over the samples, Lori picked up two and set them aside to remind herself. She'd try alloying those together tomorrow.

Nodding to herself, Lori headed for the latrine to get ready for dinner.